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CHANGING WALTER’S NAME, WHEN WILL WWE GET GOOD AGAIN, WWE AND THEIR PARTNERS AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2022-01-23 10:00:00

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With things like the Independent Contractor issues, the current lawsuit by MLW and the recent trademark botch among other things that must be a PR nightmare for WWE, does it baffle you that sponsors and other partners of WWE haven’t had conversations about possibly pulling their support?

I can’t say if they have or haven’t but honestly, I don’t see it being a major issue to any advertiser.  At the end of the day, when they make a deal with WWE they know what they are getting into.  They know what the company is about.  I don’t think they see any of the above things as a PR nightmare.

Honestly what’s the big fuss about Walter’s name change to Gunther? Correct me if I’m wrong but about a third of the people who watch Raw and Smackdown also watched NXT, even less for 2.0 and less again NXT UK, so in the bigger not many people are going to care if the guys is Walter, Gunter, Dirk, Toto or John. It’s not like WWE are suddenly changing Hulk Hogan’s name in the middle of his prime. IF the guy is presented right is anybody going to care?

It’s funny you mention Hogan.  When he came to the WWF back in the day, they ran with his name.  Why?  It had some reputation behind it.  They capitalized on the goodwill that Hogan had made outside of WWE.  They didn’t change his name.  WALTER has, on a smaller scale, created the same kind of goodwill.  He has appeared on WWE Television on The USA Network.  If they didn’t like the name before he appeared in NXT, the time to change it was then.  Now?  They just look like dopes in my opinion.  Your eyes say, “That’s WALTER!”  You ears hear, “That’s GUNTHER??????”  It may not matter to you, but it does to a lot of people, including me.

Poor Finn Balor. I guess he has joined the U2BGNAJ (used to be great, now a jobber) club. And that club seems to be picking up speed and members at a rapid pace. I know that AEW cannot pick up everyone, but maybe some of these people can have somewhere to go. I really hate it when a wrestler I think is really talented disappears (like Keith Lee), and doesn’t show up elsewhere.

With all of the talent out there, the time has never been better for someone with some real money behind them to kick the tires on starting a promotion.  But, if they can’t get a good TV deal, it will never happen.  A great TV deal is needed to run in 2022.

I don’t know what VKM is thinking, but when I see him on tv, he looks so haggard and old, and not someone you would think to be running such a huge enterprise.

When I watched Raw this week, I felt similarly.  I am not one to critique appearances and I won’t here, but he just looked “off” to me.  I can’t put it into words but I really think if he continues to look that way, his TV days should be over.

Do you think that if he were to retire or die, how long would it take for things to get good again?

It’s macabre but also a legitimate question.  I can’t really say until I see who would take over creative in his absence.  It’s so stunted now due to him having his fingers in everything.  I honestly believe, for example, that HHH could make WWE great again.  He wouldn’t make it just like NXT either.  I think he would be able to do the things that made WWE great while getting rid of the current issues that are mostly caused by Vince.  Beyond that, I would have to know who would be taking over before I could say.  If it were the current creative team, I really wonder how much better it would be.

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